ANTILLES EPISCOPAL CONFERENCE 9a Gray St, Port of Spain Trinidad & Tobago, West Indies President: Most Rev. Gabriel Malzaire, Bishop of Roseau, Dominica Vice President: Most Rev. Charles Jason Gordon, Bishop of Bridgetown, Barbados General Secretary: Rev. Fr. John D. Persaud Telephone: (868) 622-2932 Fax: (868) 628-3688 e-mail:
[email protected] or
[email protected] Web site: http:\www.aecrc.org 14th September, 2017. Ms. Christine Lagarde Managing Director of the IMF 700 19th Street, N.W., Washington D.C. 20431 U.S.A. Dear Ms. Lagarde, The utter destruction caused by the passage of Hurricane Irma across the Northern Leeward Islands has not only shocked the people of our region by its severity but has left all of us with a much deeper awareness of our vulnerability to natural disasters and with a fear of threats from other approaching weather systems. The sad reality is that the ones who are affected most, the poor, cannot be held responsible for this reality. The few dozen small Island States across the world, for example, have neither the size nor developmental history to have been major contributors to current climate change. Yet these small Island States are the most easily devastated by rising seas and harsher storms. Our brothers and sisters who inhabit these places are in peril, through no fault of their own. Today we are hearing that some experts from Germany are estimating the cost of the damage to Caribbean islands alone at US$10 billion. We are kindly requesting that the International Monetary Fund use its mandate to support all of the affected countries and especially Antigua & Barbuda by taking two steps: By declaring an immediate moratorium on all debt payments for the next six months and adding the option of an extension if this turns out to be necessary into early 2018.